The Butterfly Effect
by fromidam
Summary: When Dib is taken by the Meekrob to the other side of the galaxy to stop a war between two planets, Gaz, Zim, and Tak all come after him - with their own motives, of course . But what happens when one of them changes sides? DATR ZAGR - INDEFINITE HIATUS
1. Chapter 1

_I stood on my own as I waited for the Great Assigning to begin. I hoped to spot Tak, remembering that her dream as a smeet had been to become an Invader._

He wouldn't try and talk to her - he just wanted to see how she had turned out.

He felt something tug on his leg. Looking down, he saw Daff, his SIR unit, as expected. "What?" Nij asked, not at all irritated.

"Something bad's happening back on Seeltra. We should return and see if we can use the situation to our advantage," Daff stated to his master.

"Awesome!" Nij said, already imagining what could be happening and how to use it to his advantage. "But the ceremony..." he looked up at the still empty stage. "Oh well, there'll be others."

* * *

"Master?"

"Yes Vicky?"

"I feel obliged to inform you that the Great Assigning is to take place soon. Were you not planning on attending?"

"I was planning on attending, but I wasn't planning on making it to the bonus level in my game this soon."

Vicky looked above her head, where a screen was poised with images on it moving so quickly and erratically that her optical sensors had trouble keeping up. "So are we going or not?" she asked her master.

"Guess not. Stupid bonus levels disable the pause function. Wait wait...Damn the Tallest, I died. That's incredibly discouraging. Oh, high score. Should have seen that coming. D. A. L. that's convenient, just enough spaces for the letters in my name." Dal shut off her videogaming system (V.U.), and the screen above Vicky's head went blank. Retracting the screen back into her head compartment, Vicky picked up on something.

"Master, I have just received a signal from our base on Tikop. There seems to be a situation over there, and I would advise we go investigate immediately."

"What type of situation?" Dal asked, becoming serious. Both these things were rare occurrences - a "situation" on Tikop and Dal acting serious.

"Cause is as of yet undetermined," Vicky replied. "But according to readings it is serious. A severe increase in weapon use in the last 4 Tikopian sun cycles."

"That is pretty bad. Let's go."

* * *

"I have an urgent message for the Great Meek."

"Regarding?"

"Earthen planet colonies Seeltra and Tikop."

"Please wait a moment," the guardian Meekrob said, going gracefully through the doors to inform the Great Meek of the messenger's arrival. A few moments later he returned, motioning for the messenger to go in. The messenger bowed to the guardian Meekrob and entered the hall.

The messenger approched the throne of the Great Meek, who was in the midst of meditating. Without moving an energy wave, he said "I have been sensing disturbances on Seeltra and Tikop for several days now. What have you to report?"

"The two Earthen colony planets seem to have gone to war against eachother. It seems as if we were introducing new technologies to them too quickly for them to adjust."

"Interesting," the Great Meek said, pondering. "It makes some sense though, since humans tend to have unstable social and political structures easily sent into turmoil when too many new advancements are made in a short period of time. When we give a human on Earth the Meekrob powers, we cannot include any exterior technologies. Please tell this to the Scouting Head immediatly."

"As you wish, Great Meek," the messenger said bowing again before exiting the hall.

* * *

"So, what information were you able to gather?" Dal asked Vicky, sensing the SIR's return from scouting.

"As the sensors indicated, the source of the disturbance was an increase in weapon use. It appears that the Tikopian people are at war with the neighboring planet Seeltra," Vicky reported.

"Hum..." Dal said, pondering. Vicky couldn't tell what she was pondering though, since she was playing on her V.U. at the same time. "Seeltra also has humans from Earth on it, correct?"

"Yes," Vicky replied, accessing an Irken database. "Humans abducted from Earth by the Meekrob have been placed on both Tikop and Seeltra."

"And they say we're evil," Dal noted with a hint of anger in her voice.

* * *

"So what's the news?" asked Nij.

"Well, the disturbances our sensors picked up was a significant increase in weapon use by the Seeltran people. It appears that they have gone to war with humans on Tikop, a nearby planet," reported his SIR.

"Interesting. I'll need time to come up with a way to use this to our advantage. Does the situation show any signs of resolving itself?"

"None whatsoever."

There was silence between them for several minutes. "Is planet Tikop," Nij began to say slowly. "Not a part of Operation Secret Power?"

"It seems likely," replied Daff. "Tikop also consists of humans abducted from their home planet Earth, just like Seeltra. It seems likely the Almighty Tallest would send an Invader to Tikop. I would advise asking them before making any moves."

"Good idea Daff," Nij said, sitting up from his leaned pack position. "Get them on the Comm. This could be very good, very good indeed."

"Greetings, my Almighty Tallest," Nij said once the faces of his two leaders appeared on the Comm. "I trust all is going well with you. Is Operation Impending Doom II in full swing?"

"Yes yes, the Great Assigning went well, plus we were able to get rid of Zim. Now, what do you want Nij?" Tallest Red asked. "We're busy."

Nij raised an invisible eyebrow. "Doing what?"

"Eating snacks!" Tallest Purple answered, popping some chips into his mouth.

"Anyway," Nij said, glaring at the Irken snack jealously. "I was wondering if you could answer a question of mine. Is Tikop a part of Operation Secret Power?"

"Yeah, i' is," Tallest Purple replied with his mouth full. Swallowing, he continued, "Invader Dal is there, I think. Why?"

"Well, Seeltra and Tikop have gone to war against each other. If there was another Irken on Tikop, I was hoping to see if I could collaborate with them and possibly use the war to gain both planets at once."

"Well, I know for certain that Dal is there," Tallest Red said. "So go ahead and give her a call. You'll be lucky if you actually get to talk to her though," he muttered. Nij didn't notice, though, because he was bowing.

"Thank you for the information my Tallest. I shall keep you updated on my - or possibly mine and this Dal's - progress." The communication cut, Nij relaxed. "This day is getting better and better," he said happily to himself.

* * *

"Master, there is someone on the Comm that wishes to speak to you."

"Is it the Tallest?"

"No, it looks like another Irken Invader," Vicky replied.

Dal frowned, puzzled. "Coming," she said, standing up but not taking her eyes off her V.U. As she walked to the Comm room she would make the odd jab at a key. "What?" she said, once she was in the Comm room. With her excellent peripheral vision she saw another Irken, most likely male, on the screen.

"Hello, my name is Nij, and I am an Invader of Operation Secret Power stationed on Tikop. You are Dal, I presume?"

Dal raised an invisible eyebrow, concentrating equally on her game and this - interesting - conversation. "Yes, I am Dal. Make it quick though, I'm on a boss level."

"I had been wondering if you would consider working together with me to take both Seeltra and Tikop. I'm sure that we could figure out a way to use this new war to our advantage."

Dal considered this offer. "What's in it for me?" she asked.

"Glory for and infront of the Tallest, and a faster return to planet Irk."

Dal pouted, both because of losing a life in her game and because of what Nij said. "But I like it here, I can easily conquer it at my own pace, plus the humans have some decent games here. So I'll pass on your offer for now."

Then Nij said something that he immediately regretted "What, are you afraid to show you're an incompetent Invader who never looks up from her V.U. to see the sky is blue?" his calm demeanor was shattered, displaying his very rare temper.

What he said also brought out a rarely seen side of Dal. Her eyes flamed, and her hands shook as she hit the pause button on her game. She looked up at Nij, and he finally got a good look at her face, contorted in the anger he had felt a moment ago. "Do you doubt my competence?" she said in a loud, angry whisper. Without waiting for an answer, she continued "Only the best Invaders, those hand-picked by the Tallest for their skill and not height, are a part of Operation Secret Power. I would not be on Tikop if the Tallest did not have confidence in my ability to conquer these humans and thwart the Meekrob ON MY OWN. And I WILL take it without your help!" she said in a calm, angry voice, staring daggers at Nij on the screen. The transmission ended abruptly at that point.

Dal, her hand still on the Comm controls, looked over at her SIR, who was standing in the doorway calmly. "Vicky, I want you to set up surveillance on the planet Seeltra. Locate the Irken base there, and set up standard surveillance on it. Make sure they don't notice."

"The inhabitants of the base?"

"Especially them. Best keep it a secret from any humans there too if possible, I don't want to be accused of interfering with another Invader's mission without their consent."

"Should I do in-SIR surveillance as well, or should we rely sorely on the equipment's data?"

"Go there for a human hour everyday."

"Yes master," Vicky said, leaving, knowing that Dal had nothing else to say.

Dal, now alone, realized how angry she had been. Her fists were clenched so tight that her gloves ran the risk of stretching. Releasing her grip on nothing, she reached for something to throw. The first thing she touched was her V.U., but she snapped to her senses right before she was about to throw it at the wall.

* * *

Nij stared at the blank screen that stood before him. "Daff," he said, barely hearing himself. "In trying to make a friend and ally I have made an enemy. I have never failed in such a way." He sat there for several minutes, thinking things over as his SIR looked on. "Daff," Nij finally said. "Keep a close watch on the exterior of the base. I have a feeling Dal may try and spy on us in some way. I'll take over watching the other monitors while you do that."

Daff nodded and backed out of the room. He knew better than to say anything to his still furious master.

* * *

**Comments: **Hi there! Well, this is my first venture posting-wise here on fanfiction, so I hope I've done everything right ^.^' This is the first part of my (semi-long) story entitled The Butterfly Effect. The story will feature Zim, Gaz, Dib, and Tak from Invader Zim, but the first two chapters serve to introduce my OCs who will also come into play here and there. I have eight parts written to date, but I don't have all the time in the world so the posting of each part here won't be instantaneous. I hope to have them all up by the beginning of the week after next.

The Butterfly Effect (all chapters!) can also be found on my deviantART account, whose link can be found on my profile.

What do you guys ask for here, ratings and reviews? That's gonna take some getting used to. Anyway, until next time, this is Grav logging off.


	2. Chapter 2

Vicky watched the base motionlessly. There had been no activity in the last couple of days, according to the monitors and her own observations.

She hadn't been in her hiding place long before her own internal monitor picked up something. There was another SIR nearby. If she had been moving, Vicky would have frozen. Two things she knew for certain: the other SIR would have picked up on her, and judging by how their masters had interacted earlier, this meeting would probably turn hostile. Vicky just hoped that the other Irken, Nij, had not equipped his SIR with any advanced weapons, else she feared her master would be short her portable screen extension.

Vicky stayed still, monitoring the other SIR's progress. It, too, stayed still for several moments. When it realized she wasn't going to approach, it started to move towards her. She braced herself, debating sending a message to her master. Her decision was made for her, though, because the SIR was now right in front her.

Its eyes were bright yellow, and she saw that its legs were enhanced, but for what purpose and to what extent she couldn't tell. Its stance was not threatening - at least not yet. "Hello there," it said, and Vicky identified him as male. "My name is Daff, and I serve Nij. Who are you?"

Vicky looked at him suspiciously, but answered "Vicky, loyal servant if Dal."

"Nice to meet you. So, what are you doing here? Are you supposed to be spying on my master like he thinks your master is? I'm supposed to stand guard on the base to make sure no one gets in. Or something like that, Nij wasn't very specific on what he wanted me to do. When he gave me the order he was still distracted by what went on when our masters were talking. My master was really angry after that. Was yours?"

Vicky immediately took this chance to interrupt the never-ending chatter of Daff "Yeah, she was pretty angry, and frustrated too I think. You know you've gotten to her when she almost throws her V.U."

"She sure seemed obsessed with that thing. She didn't even look up when my master greeted her. I don't think that's very polite! Does she ever get anything done? No offence intended to her of course."

"Of course she gets things done! She was chosen for Operation Secret Power, after all. She just does hands-off data collection unless it's really important. Dal actually took planet Gumb, which she was assigned to because of height, in less than a week. The people here are much less barbaric than on Gumb though, and she's not trying to get away fast."

"I've never heard of Gumb, but it kinda sounds like dumb, which it sounds like it was. Do you want to come inside with me? I want to find out where Gumb is, and our computer has a map of the universe."

Vicky narrowed her electronic eyes, and looked at the other SIR suspiciously. "Your master told you to capture me, didn't he?"

"No he didn't! He said to keep an eye out for your master, but he didn't say anything about her SIR. So let's go!"

Vicky couldn't argue with Daff's logic, but she also knew that his master had most likely meant SIR as well. But Daff was already on his way, and Vicky decided to seize the opportunity and have a look inside the base. She might be able to gather some information for Dal, if nothing else, she told herself.

* * *

"Wow, I wouldn't have expected the Meekrob to use a planet as far away as Gumb," Daff said.

"Well, I guess they have most of the planets closer to Meek filled with other species. There are only so many planets in this galaxy, after all," Vicky commented, looking up at the giant map.

"That's true. I wonder if anyone's been to them all? But I guess that would only be physically possible for a Meekrob. But we have Irkens on almost all the Meekrob study planets, so that almost counts. I wonder how long it will be until we take them all and the Tallest finally declare war-" just then, there was a soft woosh sound, and Nij stepped out of the elevator, and stopped dead in his tracks.

He stared at Daff and Vicky for a moment, then said "Daff, who is that?"

Daff proceeded without a second thought "This is Vicky. She's Dal's SIR, and is really nice. I was just showing her our map of the universe, which is really impressive if you've never seen one before. Did you know that-"

"Daff," Nij said, cutting his SIR off. "I told you not to let anyone into the base!"

"No you didn't, you said to watch the exterior to see if Dal was trying to spy on you. I haven't seen a trace of her."

"Her SIR is as good as!"

"Well then, you should have said so," he turned to Vicky. "I guess you should go-" but she was already gone.

* * *

"So, did you find out anything while you were scouting today, Vicky?" Dal asked when Vicky entered the base.

"Nij's SIR is overly friendly and open, even when under orders. Their base is well equipped, but ours is more advanced. No signs of a threat to our mission at this time," Vicky reported, without expression.

Dal looked up from her game with interest. "How do you know?"

"It wasn't hard. Like I said, the SIR is overly friendly, and invited me into the base even when he knew who I was."

"Were you caught?"

"Yes, Nij found us, but I left while he was still scolding Daff."

"Daff?"

"His SIR."

"Ahh." Dal returned to her game, but it was clear that she was still pondering what Vicky had told her.

Vicky left the room silently, retreating to her quarters. They were nothing but two small rooms, one above the other, disguised as a closet, but Vicky liked them. She sat down in one, the bottom one, where she kept the things she had collected during her time on Tikop. There was a human baby doll in a corner, a poster of a popular movie series on one of the walls, and a small television set taking up another, amongst other things.

Vicky found the humans fascinating. Dal had been disproving of this at first, until Vicky had reminded her of something she said herself on their way there - their mission was not against the humans, but against the Meekrob.

Vicky sat in the middle of the small room, thinking about what had happened earlier that day while she was on Seeltra. "Daff was really nice," she thought. "I hope I get to talk to him again. I hope I don't run into Nij again though - I got the feeling he's really nice from what Daff said about him and my own observations, but I'm just really shy around Irkens."

* * *

Daff surveyed the exterior of the base, under stricter orders this time. He was not to allow anyone or anything inside the base under any circumstances. At the sight of Dal or her SIR, he was to give warning, and if they did not comply, shoot to destroy. Daff had a feeling, though, that Vicky probably wouldn't come back for awhile yet.

As he walked around the outside of the base, he pondered the state of his and Vicky's masters. "You'd almost think," he thought. "That the war being fought by the Seeltrans and Tikopians is being fought by Nij and Dal themselves. They have a common goal - to conquer their respective planets in glory of the Tallest - and a common enemy - the Meekrob. Even if they don't work together, they shouldn't be fighting and perceiving the other as an enemy!"

* * *

This chapter, once again, focuses on my OCs, but this time I concentrated on the SIRs. It seems that they're seeing things a lot clearer than their masters are!

I love writing Daff, he's so much fun to write =D If anyone can figure out who I base his personality off of, you'll get a prize =O [tip: it's from a book series] And you get a cookie if you can guess where I got his name from (since that's WAY easier to figure out).

In the next chapter you'll finally get to see the original Invader Zim characters. Hooray! But until then, this is Grav logging off.

PS: R&R!


	3. Chapter 3

"Why does it even matter if I threw the muffin at his head?" Dib muttered to himself as he walked through the door. In the living room he heard his sister talking to the floating image of their father.

"...meet me at Bloaty's Pizza Hog at exactly seven o'clock. Don't be late, because I only have forty-five minutes before I have to give a speech before the scientific community. And make sure your brother is there, otherwise we won't eat."

As the screen floated away, Gaz turned to face her brother. "Dad's taking us out to dinner again. Don't get abducted by Zim this time!" she told him fiercely before hopping up on the couch to play her GameSlave.

"It wasn't my fault -" but he cut himself off when he realized Gaz wasn't listening, and wouldn't have cared anyway.

When Dib got up to his room, it was lit up before he even turned on the lights. He was so distracted that he didn't remember that it was cloudy that day until he looked out his window to see two Meekrob levitating there.

Dib blinked in confusion, then said "Zim, am I still trapped in your simulator thing?" looking around suspiciously.

"You are no longer in the Irken's 'simulator thing,' young Dib," one of the Meekrob said, but he couldn't tell which one.

"Then why are you here? Didn't Zim just make you up to find out if I threw the muffin at his head?"

"No. We manipulated the Irken's simulation to include us, so that we could give you your powers as soon as possible."

"So wait, I actually do have those powers?"

"Yes."

"Then why don't I feel like I do? Like in the simulation?"

"Because the simulator created that sensation. It does not exist. However, we have more urgent matters to attend to. We need your help. Come, we will explain on the way."

After the Meekrob said this, Dib was surrounded by the eerie blue light the Meekrob appeared to be made of. So fast he could barely tell what was happening, he flew out the window after the Meekrob.

* * *

As Gaz destroyed vampire pigs, she kept a careful ear out for Dib talking to anyone besides himself. Not a minute had passed before she thought she heard someone else talking.

She turned off the volume on her game and listened again - there was no mistaking that there was a voice other than her brother's up there.

Gaz groaned as she paused her game and got off the couch. "Dib," she muttered to herself as she quickly climbed the stairs. "If you make me miss dinner with dad I will doom you."

She walked up to Dib's door and threw it open. Too late, it appeared - she just caught a glimpse of Dib's trench coat going out the window.

Gaz narrowed her eyes even more than they already were.

"Zim."

* * *

She watched silently from her vantage point in a tree as three blurs of blueish light flew out of a window, and vanished. "Dib, why must you make my life so difficult? And with Meekrob, no less," she said to herself as she jumped down gracefully from the tree and got in her new ship, hidden in a bush. As fast as the blurs, she was gone.

* * *

"Welcome home s-" said the robot, but was pushed over and broken before it could finish its greeting. Gaz made sure the second robot met a similar fate.

She walked through the door, and found Gir sitting innocently on the couch, watching TV. "Where's Zim?" Gaz asked.

Gir turned and finally noticed Gaz. "Gazzeh!" he cried, jumping onto her head.

"Gir, WHERE'S ZIM?" she demanded, pulling the robot off her head. Gir pointed to the toilet. Gaz groaned, threw Gir back on the couch, and went down to Zim's lab.

When Gaz got down there, Zim had his back turned to her. She walked up to him silently, and grabbed him at the neck. Lifting him out of his chair, she said "Zim, where's Dib?" Zim didn't respond for obvious reasons as he struggled in Gaz grasp. She let go of his neck and he fell to the floor.

Once he had his breath back, he stood up and said as if he hadn't just been sprawling around on the floor "What are you talking about, human? Zim knows not where the Dib-stink is!" Gaz growled and Zim curled up in a ball on the floor. "Zim swears he doesn't know where he is!" Gaz glared at his small form, but knew he was telling the truth. If Zim did have Dib, he would be bragging about Dib's stupidity and how he was going to conquer earth.

"Help me find him then," Gaz said, kicking Zim to make him stand up.

"I am not the Dib-monkey's sitter!" Zim said as he stood up, dignity somehow still intact.

"Surely you have SOMETHING you can use to track him down. I'd think you'd spend most of your time trying to come up with ways to exterminate his big head."

"I do have a DNA tracker that just so happens to be tuned in to the Dib-pig. But why should Zim help you?"

Gaz opened one eye and glared at him. "If you don't help me I'll wring your scrawny little neck and plunge you into a world of doom from which I will make sure you never return."

Zim let out a little yelp at this, and ran to get the DNA tracker. He came back a moment later, and after a few seconds he had Dib's whereabouts. "He's on planet Tikop, in the," Zim paused, and his eyes narrowed in hatred. "Meekrob planet systems. On the other side of the galaxy."

The look on Gaz's face gave the impression to Zim that she would explode from anger any second, and he was debating running and taking cover. "You mean to tell me that Dib is on the other side of the galaxy, with dinner with Dad seven and a half hours away?!" Zim nodded, bracing himself for the worse.

Gaz grabbed Zim again, but this time by the collar instead of the throat directly. "You have a spaceship?" Zim nodded, scared. "It travels fast?" Nod. "Fast enough to get there in say, half an hour?"

"Faster," Zim squeaked.

Gaz dropped him. "Get it ready. We're leaving."

"I'll only help you if I get to destroy the Dib-stink after your meal with your father."

"Only if I get to help."

"Deal," they said in unison.

* * *

At the request of many people, here they are, the original Invader Zim characters! Not much to say about this chapter, but just a note for the story in general: I'm disregarding the chronology of the episodes. One, because I don't have an accurate list, and two, it just makes things easier for me and makes it so I can include or exclude whatever I want =P Anyhow, hope you enjoy this and I especially hope the characters aren't epically OOC! R&R!

**G**rav


	4. Chapter 4

She traced the bodies of energy that were moving with Dib. Once they were isolated, she inputted a few commands into her ship's computer, and she was after them.

* * *

"What's taking so long Zim?"

"You said that Dib's worm-coat seemed to have a blueish glow to it before it disappeared?" Gaz nodded in reply, which caused Zim to frown as he continued to work at his ship's computers. "Hopefully those Meekrob are still in range," he muttered. After a moment, something beeped, and Zim laughed triumphantly.

Before he could say anything to Gaz about it, though, the ship abruptly rose and started to hurtle towards space. Before either of them could draw a breath in surprise, they had already past the moon and were heading into the blackness of space.

"So, Zim, I ask again. What took so long?" Gaz said, once she had overcome the physical shock of the very high takeoff speed and being in space.

"Well, you see, Dib-sister, from the blueish glow you indicated surrounded his worm-coat, I realized the Meekrob must have taken him," Gaz didn't have to ask, because Zim continued his explanation without her prompting. "The Meekrob are a people of pure energy that are at war with my people, the Irkens. Because of this, all Irken vessels are equipped with specialized Meekrob-fighting technology, incase of an encounter while on a mission. For example, there is a tracker that can isolate a Meekrob's energy print, and lead the voot right to the Meekrob it's tracking. It was this tracker that delayed us - we had to wait for it to pick up the energy trail of a Meekrob traveling from Earth to Tikop to follow. Because of the print it is picking up, the voot is able to travel at the same speed the Meekrob do through space, which is several times faster than what it's normally capable of, by harnessing that energy." Zim was smiling, proud in the intelligence and technology of his people.

"So why would they need Dib? Do they eat annoying things with big heads for dinner?"

Zim shook his head. "No, Zim does not think they do. Zim has no idea why they would want the Gaz-brother. He's much more trouble than his big head is worth." Both of them smiled at this. This much they had in common - a hatred of Dib and a love of insulting his big head.

"So how long until we get to - wherever we're going?" Gaz asked.

"Four point two human minutes."

* * *

It took Dib and the two Meekrob about five minutes to travel from Earth to Tikop. While Dib was thrilled to be in outer space, he couldn't fully relish the experience because the Meekrob were explaining to him why they needed him.

"Two other planets inhabited by humans," one of the Meekrob explained. "Seeltra and Tikop, have gone to war against each other. They do not know of our existence, but we need to stop this war. This is where you come in, young Dib: you shall stop the war for us."

"How? And how am I able to hear you? We're in the vacuum of space, where there's supposed to be no sound."

"We are communicating with you telepathically," the Meekrob said as if it was obvious. "And as to how you stop the war, that will be up to you to figure out. We can't do everything, you know."

"But I have to be home for seven, or else Gaz will kill me!" Dib remembered, panicking. He knew full well she could do so if she tried.

"You need not worry. The time on Tikop and Seeltra passes at a different rate than that of Earth."

"But wait - shouldn't, technically, we be falling behind in time compared to the rest of the universe since we're traveling so fast?" As Dib said this, he looked to his left, unable to concentrate on the stars he should be seeing because they were traveling so fast.

"We Meekrob have the ability to manipulate time to our liking - as we travel, we are keeping time with most of the normal universe."

At this point the three approached and then landed on a very earth-like planet. The sky was a slightly darker blue than on Earth, but the buildings were almost identical. No one was out, even though it appeared to be mid-afternoon. Dib saw all of this from the edge of a forest, where he and the Meekrob landed.

"This is Tikop. Seeltra," it said, pointing one limb of energy. "Is that circle to the left of the sun. Even in the time of war, they have constant transportation between the two. We'll take you to Seeltra now though, where you'll be able to find lodgings easier." And so once again Dib was surrounded by blue light, and after what seemed like less than a second was on Seeltra.

* * *

Tak's thoughts were blank during her five-minute trip. She sat calmly with her arms crossed, her eyes never leaving a small dot of blue light ahead of her that others might mistake for a star. Of course her seeing the light like this what a physical impossibility - but the Meekrob already broke so many of those with their powers that it really wasn't all that strange.

Eventually a planet was in her sight - and she had less than a second to react and stop using the Meekrob's energy before she would have crashed into the planet's surface. This done, she quickly but very cautiously lowered her ship down to the surface near where Dib and the Meekrob were, but out of their sight. The door of her ship had barely begun to open before she saw three blurs of blue light fly off towards a nearby planet, easily visible in the afternoon sky. Tak sighed inwardly, and manually flew her ship there, keeping careful watch on Dib and the Meekrobs' location incase they decided to switch planets on a moment's notice again.

By the time her ship got to the second planet, Seeltra according to the ship's database, the Meekrob and Dib were still there. She landed her ship quickly and got out. From where she stood she could hear the Meekrob speaking to Dib.

"We'll leave you to it then, young Dib. Good luck," the Meekrob said, and just like that they were gone, leaving Dib alone and seemingly still confused.

Tak activated her human disguise, entirely unchanged from when she was on Earth, and walked out to Dib. "Dib, what are you doing here?" she asked.

He started, and turned around. "Tak!?" his mouth hung open in surprise, and he blinked several times. "But you - your ship - Zim - ???"

"So my ship reached you I take it?" she nodded, not waiting for a reply from Dib. "I have a new ship now, if that's why you're so surprised."

"No, it's just - actually, never mind. What are you doing here?"

"I asked that first Dib."

"Oh, right. You see, Zim captured me because he wanted to find out if I threw a muffin at his head during lunch," this got a smile from Tak. "And these aliens that called themselves Meekrob brainwashed Zim's simulator thing or something to give me some 'Meekrob powers' or something like that while they were disguised as giant sneakers. So then once I got home and was in my room the Meekrob came back - not as giant sneakers this time though - and brought me here. And because of all this Gaz is going to kill me because I won't be on time for dinner with Dad."

"Well, as I'm sure the Meekrob told you, time does pass differently here. Much faster, in fact. I'd estimate about one day here for five minutes on Earth."

"Really? But isn't that impossible? I thought the Meekrob were just saying that to make me shut up."

"For normal beings, yes it is impossible, but the Meekrob usually mess up the passing of time on their study planets for the fun of it."

"Study planets?"

"Honestly Dib, did the Meekrob not tell you anything?" Tak cried, getting frustrated. Recovering from her momentary outburst, she said "The Meekrob and the Irkens are at war. In hopes of making our lives more difficult, they make study planets that have abducted members of a species from a planet that an Irken Invader is or will try to take over. They study the inhabitants of their study planets to see how the species adapts to new technologies and other things. Once they have enough data, they go to the original planet, and if it's not too late, give some Meekrob powers to one of the inhabitants so that they can fight off the Irken 'threat.' The powers they give them depends on what they observed on their study planet. Any more questions?" she asked, crossing her arms impatiently.

"Yeah. What are you doing here?"

"I followed you here from Earth. No more questions right now," she said holding up her hand, seeing Dib's mouth about to open. "First, let's get back to my ship."

* * *

"So, what now?"

Gaz hopped out of Zim's ship, looking back at him. "We go look for Dib. You brought the DNA tracker, right?" Zim smiled guiltily and rubbed the back of his head. Gaz's eyes flamed in anger, but she knew there was nothing she could do about it at that point. She just vowed to herself that she would doom Zim for his stupidity after they had destroyed Dib. "Come on, you're going to help me look," she said to Zim angrily. Today was just not her day.

"I agreed to help you get to where the Dib-weasel was. Zim never said he'd help you find him," Zim said, opening a can of Poop Cola.

"I'LL HELP YA' LOOK GAZZY!" an all too familiar voice cried as the little robot jumped out of the ship with his dog disguise half on.

"I thought. You said. You left him ON EARTH!" seethed Gaz as she resisted the urge to bang her head on the side of Zim's ship. Instead, she reached out and grabbed the green alien by the neck just as he was about to take his first sip of Poop Cola. She grabbed the can out of his hand and downed the entire can in two gulps. She sighed and threw the empty can back into the ship. "I needed that. Got any pizza?" Zim shook his head as he struggled in Gaz's grip.

She grunted as she let go of his neck and dragged him along by the arm. Zim had to put on his human disguise (wasn't he smart to bring it?) one handed, which resulted in an extremely crocked wig. As he trailed behind Gaz, he realized that she had just drunk an Irken pop. He watched her back suspiciously, expecting her to mutate in some way or another at any moment.

Zim had landed his ship deep in the woods on Seeltra, so it took a few minutes to make their way out. Once they were at the edge, Gaz stopped. Noticing that the houses looked much like the ones on Earth, she turned to Zim to tell him to put his disguise on (for his sake, she hoped he had). She frowned, roughly adjusted his wig, and pulled him out into the deserted street.

* * *

Another chapter with the original Invader Zim characters =) I really don't know what to say about this. All comments that were once fresh in my brain are gone now DX Oh, here's one: I put a reference to the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy in this chapter, though I changed it slightly so that it wasn't painfully obvious. Maybe you'll still be able to find it =P Good luck! See y'all at the next chapter installment! Please R&R in the meantime. Grav out.


	5. Chapter 5

"Master?"

"Yes Daff?"

"The monitors are picking up something."

Nij sat up from his reclined position. "Is Dal coming?"

"No. Another Irken ship has landed on Seeltra. It's not Dal's."

Nij was very surprised, but recovered quickly. "Well then, let's go investigate."

* * *

"Dal?"

She grunted in acknowledgment, motioning with her head for Vicky to go on, her hands occupied as she hammered away on her V.U.

"A few minutes ago an Irken ship landed on Tikop." At this Dal's hands froze. Vicky continued "But left a moment later. But a minute ago another one landed, and shows no signs of leaving like the first."

"Was it Nij's ship either time?" Dal asked.

"No. Should we go investigate, Master?"

Dal nodded. "I'll just grab my PG."

* * *

Daff tracked the location of the Irken ship using his inner computer, and gave his master directions as he walked through the streets in his human disguise. Not far from their base they found it in the woods. It appeared to be empty, but Nij still approached it cautiously. He was about to reach out and open it when a voice said "Do not touch my ship, human."

He whipped his head around ninety degrees to the source of the voice, his hologram-produced hair twisting perfectly in accordance with the sudden movement. Daff, attached to his Pak and hidden by a hologram of a large backpack, kept silent and perfectly still. Emerging into the clearing where the ship sat came two humans, one holding an Irken laser gun pointed directly at Nij, while the other human, who had a very large head, followed close behind with no weapon. "I'm no human, nor are you, Irken," Nij said calmly.

The one holding the gun glared daggers at Nij, but lowered her gun to her side. "What's an Irken doing on Seeltra?" she asked. "It's not a part of Operation Impending Doom II."

"I could ask you two the same thing."

Before Dib could say anything, Tak held up her hand to keep him quiet. "We won't inquire into your business here, and you won't ours," she stated, and Nij didn't object. "I'm Tak, and this is Dib."

Nij had to blink a couple of times in surprise before he could respond. "Tak?" he repeated. "Is that really you? I guess I shouldn't be this surprised, but I am. It's me, Nij."

Tak's eyes widened in equal surprise. "Nij? Haven't seen you since we were smeets."

"Smeets?" Dib asked.

Tak turned and glared at him. "Yes, smeets. Now keep quiet." She turned back to face Nij. "How have you been lately?"

"Good, but my temper's gotten the best of me as of late. Dealing with this Irken on Tikop has me wanting to pull out these holographic strands of hair," he said, pointing to the top of his head.

"Well, at least you haven't had to deal with Zim," Tak said, putting her laser gun back into her Pak.

"Ouch. How did that all happen?"

"Long story. But first, do you have a base here? Dib and I need somewhere to stay."

"Yeah, I do. And you're welcome to stay there," Nij said, sarcasm in his voice because of Tak's self-invitation. "Daff can input the location into your ship. It's not far from here."

"Daff?" Tak asked. In response to his name, the hologram disappeared, and Daff jumped down from Nij's Pak and bowed. Tak nodded, walked over to her ship, and opened it for the SIR. Within moments he had them inputted, and hopped out again to stand beside his master. Tak got in, and motioned for Dib to get in as well. "Sorry, there's only two seats," she said to Nij. "You'll have to walk."

Nij shrugged. "Fine with me. Let's go Daff," he said as his SIR reattached itself to Nij's Pak, the backpack hologram reactivating as soon as he was in place. "See you in a bit," he waved, and turned to walk back to his base.

Tak's ship was up in the air before Dib finally piped up and said "Was that an Irken?"

"Yes Dib."

"And you know him from when you were..."

"Smeets. Baby Irkens."

"Oh. And now we're going to an Irken's base who you haven't talked to in I don't know how long and we have no idea what he's doing on this planet."

"More or less."

"Zim's saner than all this."

"And now, there are more important things to deal with. New rule: don't talk unless we're alone."

"Why?"

"Because we have to keep the fact that you're a human a secret from Nij, and I know how to work around things so that he won't find out. Just let me do all the talking for now. And before you ask why we have to keep it a secret, it's because that would raise too many questions I'd rather not answer."

"Like why you followed me here from Earth?" Dib asked, looking over at Tak.

"Yes."

"Can you at least tell me why?" Tak's face tightening was all that told Dib that she had even heard his question, because she didn't answer until she began to lower her ship in behind Nij's base

"Dib, the Meekrob kill whoever they give powers to after they've eliminated the Irken threat, because they can't trust them to be responsible with the powers unsupervised. I couldn't let that happen to you," she started, but Dib interrupted her.

"But they didn't bring me here to destroy any Irkens - they want me to stop some war going on between Tikop and Seeltra."

"I don't think that'll make a difference," taking the escape he provided from saying anything more.

* * *

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Dal said to herself as she saw two people walking down the street towards her.

"His disguise is rather pitiful," Vicky agreed from a location Dal couldn't pinpoint. "Are you going to talk to them?"

"I guess I don't really have much of a choice now," Dal said, because the two people had seen her and were crossing the street towards her. Dal waited for them to approach, watching them closely once she paused her PortableGamer (PG) and pocketed it in her hoodie's kangaroo pocket.

They stopped a few feet away from her. "Have you seen a kid walk by here with an abnormally large head?" the girl asked. If she was Irken, her disguise was many times better than her companion's.

"No. Everyone's inside their houses for curfew for a couple more hours. I would ask why you two aren't, but it's obvious you're not from here, Irken."

"Irken? Where?" Zim cried, spinning around and looking around suspiciously.

"You, idiot. It's not hard to see through your disguise. Actually, it's painfully obvious. You do know this is a Meekrob study planet, right? Better hope you don't get caught."

"Well, if you do see my idiot brother with a big head, let me know so I can DESTROY HIM!" Gaz said, her eyes darkening. Behind her, dark clouds formed and blocked out the sun for a moment before separating and dispersing in the sky.

"Whoa, how'd you do that? It looked like something from a videogame," Dal said, starry eyed.

Gal opened one eye part way to look at Dal. "I didn't do anything. But it does resemble Vampire Piggy Slayers II in the cut scene right after defeating the third final boss in the bonus round."

"Vampire Piggy Slayers II? Never heard of it, or Vampire Piggy Slayers I for that matter. What unit is it for?"

"GameSlave."

"What's a GameSlave? Is it a new system? I thought the newest was still the PG."

It was Gaz's turn to be clueless. "PG? This is a GameSlave," she said, pulling her's out. Dal in turn pulled out her PG.

While the girls talked about videogames, Zim continued to search the area for other Irkens, having not understood that Dal was referring to him. "Foolish human-stink, there are no Irkens here!" Zim stated, coming back to stand in front of Dal and beside Gaz.

"Oh for the sake of the Tallest, you're even stupider than you look!"

"That's an understatement," Gaz said, but her words were lost when Zim spoke.

"The Tallest? How dare you swear in their name without knowing who they are, human worm-baby?"

"I do know who they are. I'm Irken too. Now shut up, me and...What s your name?" Dal said, turning to Gaz.

"Gaz. And that's Zim," Gaz said, pointing a thumb at Zim.

"Dal. So as I was saying, Gaz and I are trying to talk, so shut up - wait, Zim?!" Dal glared at the poorly disguised Irken suspiciously. "You don't have any Destroyers or other Weapons of Mass Destruction on you, do you?" Zim shook his head. "Good. My mission can do without-"

Dal was interrupted by Gir's cry of "I found you!" to Dal's left; a moment later Vicky staggered out from behind a bush, the little green dog on her head. "Now you gotta give me a taco."

Vicky's arm transformed into a large laser gun, and she pointed it at Gir. "Get. Off. Now."

"Only if you promise to sing the Doom Song with me!" Gir said as he jumped off of Vicky's head, and without waiting for an answer burst into song. "Doom doom doom doom doom..."

Ignoring the insane robot, Vicky walked over to stand beside her master. "The SIR's disguise is almost as pitiful as its master's," Zim replied to this with a slightly delayed "Hey!" "May I destroy it?"

"No," Dal said, watching Gir with amusement. "It's kind of cute in a stupid sort of way," then a thought dawned on her. "When is the Guard due to go down this street?" she asked her SIR.

"In two minutes. They should be walking down our street now."

"We should get going then. Do you guys have anywhere to stay?" Dal asked Zim and Gaz. They shook their heads.

"We were kind of planning to just find my brother and leave," Gaz said.

"Yeah well, you can do that once the Guard is done their patrols. Come on," she said motioning for them to follow her. She stopped turning midway, and after looking at Zim added as an afterthought. "Your ship isn't parked anywhere super-conspicuous, is it?"

"Does deep in the woods count?" Gaz asked. Dal nodded in approval of their location, and started to lead the way to her base.

* * *

Yay, part 5 =D The original Invader Zim characters meet my OCs, and they seem to be getting along well =P Well, best get working (I'm at school). See you later! Grav out.


	6. Chapter 6

"My storage space is in through there," Nij indicated, pointing to a small linen closet. Upon entering his base he had removed his disguise, but Tak kept hers on, saying both her and Dib's disguises couldn't be tempered with because their hologram projectors were damaged. "If you need any parts let me know and I'll get them - it's quite the mess."

"Do you happen to have some extra SIR parts in there?" Tak asked.

"Yours get fried?"

"By Zim."

"Oh, figures," Nij nodded. "I'll see what I can dig up. Do you need anything else?" he asked, looking at Dib. Both Dib and Tak shook their heads. Nij shrugged before walking through the linen closet door, closing it behind him. A moment later a small crash was heard, followed by a short muffled vocalization from Nij.

Once no more sounds could be heard, Dib said "His base is a lot better than Zim's."

"That's not hard to accomplish," Tak replied. "You should not base your expectations of Irken on what you know of Zim; he's a bad example. As am I, in some cases," she shrugged. "Nij is a much better example, though he tends to be unusually calm for an Irken."

"By the way, I never got a chance to ask you - why was the on off switch of your molten extractor thing so huge?"

"Irken regulation. The on off switch has to be sized in proportion to the size of the machine," she narrowed her eyes. "If you hadn't said anything about the switch, I wouldn't have known that you were responsible for the failure of that part of my plan. Or that you had done anything to stop me at all once Mimi sent you out of my old base, though I would have mildly suspected it."

Dib gulped. "I, uhh..."

"I'm not angry about it anymore. I've accepted my past defeat and am already planning my revenge for him ruining my plan to take his mission. Hopefully with one more ally this time."

It took Dib a moment to realize that it was a question and Tak expected an answer, and once he did he said "Well, I guess I'll help as long as you're not going to try and destroy or take over the world again."

"I won't. That's one very important lesson I learnt last time."

* * *

"Wow Zim, your base really sucks compared to this one."

"Do not insult Zim's superior invading skills, foolish Gaz human!"

"Was he like this on your home planet or wherever you come from?" Gaz asked, turning to Dal.

"More or less, according to what I heard. I was fortunate enough to never have come into contact with him before now," Dal replied. "So, where'd you get that GameSlave thing you showed me before? Is it a new system under production and you're a tester?" Without waiting for an answer, her eyes went wide with admiration.

"No, the GameSlave has been out for a while now on Earth," Gaz replied.

"Earth? You guys are from the mystery planet? Well I guess I shouldn't be surprised," Dal said, looking at Zim who was trying to dislodge Gir, who was firmly attached to Zim's arm. "What's it like there?"

Gaz shrugged. "Okay. People are pretty stupid there. The only other person there who knows Zim's an alien is my big headed brother who's pretty stupid himself. Everyone else just thinks Zim has a skin condition or something."

"With that disguise? Wow, they must be stupid. Or blind. The people here on Tikop aren't nearly as stupid as the ones on Earth sound, which is strange because they all originated from Earth, including the ones on Seeltra."

"Seeltra?" Gaz asked.

"That planet," Dal replied, pointing out a window through which the neighboring planet was fully visible. "Tikop's at war against it. That's why we had to get off the streets; they've set up a curfew during the day when it would be easiest for the Seeltrans to bomb or some such thing highly populated streets. Instead people have to do everything by night, which was pretty much how it was done before anyway, just now they have no choice. The curfew's enforced by the Guard, who patrol the streets to make sure no one's breaking it. They try and make their times look random, but they're really not," she shrugged. "The Seeltrans have also set up a curfew for their people."

"How are their videogames?" Gaz asked.

"Same as here. It's all distributed equally between the two planets. Speaking of which, do you mind if I duplicate your GameSlave? I really want to try some of those games you've told me about."

"Could you duplicate a PG for me at the same time?"

"Sure, and I'll also make you a V.U., it's even better than PGs. The games are much more violent."

"Excellent."

* * *

Dib looked on as Tak worked on repairing Mimi. After Nij had given her the parts she needed, she and Dib had retreated to the back of her new ship, which was a multi-purpose lab. Dib was severely bored, and as Tak had forbidden him from doing any spying of any sort on Nij to gain information on Zim's technology, he had nothing to do. "I wish the Meekrob had let me grab a few things before bringing me here. I wonder if they could have re-powered my spell drives? But magic isn't necessarily energy..." the thought of Meekrob, however, got Dib thinking about more pressing matters. "How am I supposed to stop a war?" he wondered aloud.

"If you insist on staying here to do as the Meekrob say, which I would highly advise against, I will first find out from Nij how wars are fought here, as they can be fought any number of ways other than the Earthling's killing of one another. We shall plan accordingly from there."

"We? And why isn't it a good idea?"

"Yes we. I'm not going to leave you to do this alone, because I need you alive to help me destroy Zim," this got a look of horror from Dib's face. "I don't mean it that way. And it's not a good idea because the Meekrob will probably kill you once you do stop the war."

"But they might let me live, since there's still Zim to eliminate back on Earth."

Tak was thoughtful as she disconnected wires to a data chip that needed replacing. "That's true," she conceded after a few moments. "But before we commit to stopping a war, there's one thing I want you to consider carefully: did you pledge to protect Earth, or all humans?"

Dib sat in silence after that.

* * *

Hooray, chapter six. Almost done posting the chapters I've already written, only two more to go =D And then you guys will finally have to deal with a significant time lapse between parts =O You people are spoiled, you know that? Almost one chapter every day (at least last week)...If only all stories updated like that X_X

So anyway, fun times at my OCs' bases. Tak finally gets to fix Mimi, and Gaz gets new videogames - the girls lucked out in this chapter. And Dib just won't accept that from an Irken's point of view, Meekrob are always bad news, and either way Tak leaves him with fruit for thought. Wonder what he's going to decide? Don't count on the answer being black and white!

**G**rav


	7. Chapter 7

"Say Zim, do you happen to know of any other Irkens in this part of the galaxy? A few minutes before your ship landed another Irken ship landed, but stayed for less than a minute," Dal said. The puzzle had been pulling at her mind for over an hour.

"Zim knows not of any Irkens here," Zim replied. "My base is on Earth, foolish Dal-"

"Don't add adjectives to my name you little weasel. Ever."

"How dare you tell the almighty Zim what to do?" cried Zim, jumping up on the small table beside the couch he had been sitting on as he declared his superiority. He immediately lost his balance, however, and he and the table toppled to the floor. As he rubbed his face from the impact, he said "How dare you injure the amazing Zim, floor? Well answer me!"

"Shut up," Gaz said, speaking for the first time since Dal had copied her a PG and several games. Her new V.U. sat on the table beside the chair on which she sat (obviously not the one Zim jumped up on, otherwise our short insane Irken friend would have been dead on the spot). "Zim, you're stupid, your voice is annoying me, and you're full of yourself. If you talk again I will doom your soul to a nightmare world from which there is no escape."

An audible gulp was heard, followed by silence.

* * *

"That Dal-worm is getting on the great Zim's nerves," Zim thought to himself as he walked out the door of the other Irken's base. He had left Dal and the Dib-sibling in the base while they talked about their electronic entertainment systems the Gaz especially found so precious. It was one aspect of humans and other Irkens that he would never understand, the love of pressing buttons to control beings on a small screen.

Zim walked around for about half an hour. During that time he came to understand Gaz's frustration with him at forgetting the DNA tracker; it would have been much easier to find Dib if he had it with him. Regardless, Zim continued to search the streets of Tikop, figuring that the sooner Dib was found, the sooner he could return to Earth, destroy Dib's giant head, and get on with his conquest of Earth.

This thought reminded him of the deal he made with Gaz: they would destroy Dib together. Or would they? Zim wasn't sure. He wanted his victory over Dib to be completely his, but when he thought about what Gaz would do if he didn't let her help, he realized Dib wouldn't be the only one that would die painfully in said scenario.

Zim reviewed in his mind what he knew about Gaz - it wasn't much. She was younger than Dib, a grade below Zim believed. She spent almost every waking minute playing her GameSlave, and loved pizza with a passion. She didn't have any friends, at least back on Earth he thought with a growl at being reminded of Dal. She knew he was an Irken and she hated her brother, but that last one was a given.

Zim was so lost in thought that he didn't hear the people approaching until they all yelled together "HALT!" which would have made for ringing ears had Zim any. He looked up, quickly wondering if he had his disguise on; a quick wiggle of one of his antennae confirmed they were safely concealed under his wig. He couldn't remember taking his contacts out.

"How dare you filthy humans tell the almighty Zim what to do?!" Zim yelled at a volume that rivalled that of the group of half a dozen.

The humans ignored his comment completely. One stepped away from the group and approached Zim. "What are you doing out after curfew, sir? You look sick."

"Zim knows nothing of the curfew of which you speak, human filth! And Zim is not sick, no! He is the model of healthy humans! I am!"

Another human spoke up. "But your skin is green. Like really green."

"And he doesn't have ears or a nose," another said.

"It is a skin condition, nothing more you foolish worm babies! I am Zim!"

"I've never heard of a skin condition that leaves someone without ears or a nose," the first person said. "But since we have to take you in for questioning anyways because you're outside outside of curfew, we'll have it looked into. Please put your hands straight out in front of you and come with us peacefully."

By that point Zim had finally realized what was happening: he was being arrested. He extracted his pak legs and used them to sprint down the street away from the humans. He hadn't gone more than three pak leg steps before he felt a short burst of heat to the left of his face. Turning his head, he saw that the humans now all had guns in their hands and were trying to shoot him. Smirking confidently to himself, Zim's pak legs didn't miss a step.

Zim's cockiness was short lived, however. A few pak steps later, one of the bullets hit one of Zim's pak legs square at a joint, paralysing the leg and making it useless. Luckily for Zim, the other legs compensated for the loss, and he barely slowed down. The damaged leg retreated back into his pak to avoid getting in the way of the others. "Haha! You cannot slow the almighty Zim that easily, human-dirt!"

But apparently they could. Though they were slower than Zim's pak legs, the humans ran after him with impressive speed and continued to shoot at him. When they were halfway down the street and Zim was approaching the end, a bullet hit the mark, right in the middle of his pak. It went through the outer casing of the pak, and Zim took one more pak step before his pak legs collapsed and he fell to the ground and lay there motionlessly.

* * *

"Say, where's Zim?" Gaz said, breaking a silence that had risen she and Dal became immersed in their respective videogames.

Dal looked around and immediately panicked. "Tallest, where did he go? If he's in my lab I'm doomed. Did you see where he went? Vicky!"

"Yes master?" Vicky said, stepping out of her closet room.

"Go check on the lab and make sure Zim isn't down there."

"Alright master," Vicky replied, and scurried out of the room. After a full minute of Dal muttering angrily to herself and doing some calculations on her fingers, Vicky returned and said "Zim was not down in the lab, master. And everything is intact," the SIR added, seeing Dal's unease.

Upon hearing this, Dal relaxed. "Thank the Tallest. But as much as it makes me cringe, we still have to find him."

"Why? He's annoying, and I can probably fly his ship back to Earth myself," Gaz said, still playing on her PG.

"Well, though him destroying the planet would help my mission," this got an opened eye from Gaz. "If the humans capture him, he might tell them about me, and I can't let that happen if I can help it. And with his horrible disguise, they might just take him because he looks sick." She glanced at the clock on the wall. "And it's not curfew yet. Let's go Vicky, we have to find him. You coming?" she asked Gaz.

"Ehh," said Gaz, shrugging and standing up.

* * *

"And as we approach curfew, we have some breaking news from Tikop. According to our sources, members of Tikop's Guard apprehended and captured an alien being several hours ago," the news announcer said, seemingly interested in what he was saying for once. "Information is being kept very much under wraps at the moment, but be sure we here at Seeltra News Net will be on top of any developments made public."

At this Nij shut off the television. "Dal," he muttered. "She must have been too distracted by her videogames to see the Guard coming." He smirked, but eventually his conscious got the better of him. "Who knows what they'll do to her. I may not like her, but we are both Irken..." he frowned as he thought things over. He sat for several minutes, until he was interrupted by Tak and Dib's return from wherever they had gone off to to fix Tak's SIR.

"Good evening Nij," Tak said happily as she walked into the room. "Thank you again for the parts - I got Mimi all fixed." At this Nij noticed the small robot that stood between Tak and Dib, expression blank due to its lack of a mouth.

"That's great," Nij said. "Did you want mouth and vocal parts? I'm sure I have some."

"No no, it's fine. I prefer her without the power of speech," Tak replied, looking down at her SIR, then looking back up at her old friend. "However, I was wondering if you could tell me more about this war between Seeltra and Tikop."

"Well, I'm not really sure what started the whole thing, since I was on Irk when it all took place, and no one's talking about it because everyone seems to know. Not even Daff has been able to find out, but I don't think it really matters."

"Now that it has started, how is it being fought?"

"Well, it's pretty messed up if you ask me. They have real live armies of soldiers, but their movements and other actions are controlled by the planet's respective leaders (Author Note: as in one leader per planet) through form of electronic controllers."

"So wait, are you saying it's like a giant videogame but with real people instead of computer...people?" Dib asked, getting a harsh look from Tak.

Nij thought for a moment. "When you think about it that way, it's an incredibly accurate description. Frig, now I really wished I hadn't pissed off Dal, she would have been very useful. Wait, maybe she got captured on purpose to get closer to the controllers...Just great..." Nij rambled on, to the confusion of Dib and Tak.

"Nij?" Tak said hesitantly, not sure if she should break his train of thought. It was a habit he developed when they were smeets, talking out loud while trying to reason with himself. Kind of reminded her of Dib.

"Yeah? Oh, sorry about that," he said smiling guiltily. "Just got a lot of things on my mind in regards to my mission, that's all."

"What is you mission, if you don't mind my asking?"

"I'm part of what's called Operation Secret Power. We're each sent to a Meekrob study planet to take over and or destroy it. Pretty much just annoy the Meekrob."

"Operation Secret Power," Tak repeated. "I've never heard of it."

"It was kept top secret at the time. Only the best invaders were selected to be a part of it, so I guess it was also kind of a jealousy thing. The Dal I mentioned is also a part of it, and she's stationed on Tikop. But only the very best invader, Invader Tenn I think it was, was sent to Meek itself."

Tak's face seemed to go dark at the last sentence. She nodded curtly and said "Alright, thanks. Come on Dib," she said, grabbing his wrist and pulling him back out the door. Mimi followed close behind.

* * *

Oh no, Zim's been captured =O It appears the humans on Tikop are a great deal more intelligent than those of Earth. How strange. And a tad bit of foreshadowing there near the end, but you won't get it for at least three more chapters ;) Enjoy, and please R&R! Grav logging off.


	8. Chapter 8

"Shouldn't we check back at your house to see if he went back there?" Gaz asked as she and Dal hid from the passing guard. Vicky was no where to be seen, since she had taken a different route than the human and Irken in hopes of covering more ground.

"No. If he had gone back, my alarms would have gone off and I'd be aware of it. They haven't, so he's still out here somewhere. Only good thing is he doesn't seem to have been able to destroy anything yet."

A moment later, there was a loud, resounding noise that reminded Gaz of a cheery school bell in the background of a torture centre. It lasted for about five seconds, but it echoed for several more after ending. "Our job just got a lot harder," Dal muttered, more to herself than to Gaz.

* * *

Dib jumped in his seat at the noise. It blared in his ears, and he rushed to cover them. After five seconds the sound ended, but it still rang heavily in his ears. He looked over at Tak, who was visibly shaken. "What was that?" Dib asked, glad he could hear his own voice.

"I'm supposing it was the curfew alarm Nij mentioned, but that is what the Meekrob native speech sounds like."

"O...kay," Dib said.

"Hey, you guys aren't gonna believe this. Or maybe you will. Anyway, apparently Zim's been captured by the humans on Tikop."

"Zim?" Tak cried.

"On Tikop?" Dib echoed.

"Apparently so. Just as you guys walked into the living room they announced an alien was apprehended on Tikop; I thought it was Dal, the Irken of Operation Secret Power stationed there, but when they interviewed one of the Guard who helped capture him they said he seemed to be speaking in third person, calling himself Zim."

"Third person? Yup, that sounds like Zim. But what's he doing on Tikop?"

"He couldn't have followed me here, why would he," Tak muttered at a volume only Dib could hear. "Of course, that's it, he followed Dib," she said, looking over at him.

"Why are you blaming me for?"

"When the Meekrob brought you here," Tak explained, only for Dib's ears. "They left behind a trail that standard issue Irken technology can trace and harness to follow at accelerated speeds; I'll explain more later."

"May I be let back into the conversation?" Nij asked.

"Yes. We were just saying that it is possible Zim followed Dib - us - here, though we don't know why."

"Well, he's been captured, which means he's as good as dead. The Tikopians are always seeking knowledge; they'll have him on a dissection table in no time."

"Oh come on! These people can tell he's an alien immediately, and everyone on Earth won't even when I'm telling them!" Dib said. "Why'd I have to get stuck on the planets of idiots?" He received an elbow in the side for talking courtesy of Tak.

"You guys were both on the same planet as Zim? I pity you. Why did the Tallest send three Invaders to one planet?" Nij said.

"They di - it's complicated. I don't want to get into that now though. Dib and I have a job to do."

"What?" Dib and Nij both asked simultaneously.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but we're going to rescue Zim - to destroy him ourselves."

* * *

"So that...sound meant that curfew's ended?" Gaz asked.

"Yup, pretty much."

"But that means we don't have to sneak around, so we'll be able to search for Zim faster."

"Yeah, but it also means the streets will be full of people. Which means it'll be harder to spot him, and someone might realize he's an alien before we find him."

"No on Earth except for my brother ever noticed he was an alien."

"That may be true, but the humans on Tikop and Seeltra are a lot smarter than their Earthling counterparts. They'll notice eventually."

"So what do we do now?"

"Keep looking I guess," Dal said, standing up and exiting their hiding place. "But stay close to me - the streets'll get crowded pretty quick." The girls continued down the street they were on, walking faster now.

As Dal had said, the streets filled up quickly. It seemed to Gaz that everyone on the planet was outside; it was quite a battle to keep Dal in sight in front of her. Eventually Dal stopped in front of what seemed like a store, a shocked expression on her face. Gaz stopped beside her and followed her gaze into the shop.

Inside were many devices that resembled televisions, but were supported at the front by what seemed to be very large keyboards. On the screen of every TV-like device in the shop was Zim's face. His eyes were closed and slightly scrunched, as if he was having a bad dream or had fallen asleep angry or in pain. The image then switched to that of a human news announcer. When Gaz strained her ears, she could just hear the woman's words over the loud drone of voices and walking feet on the street.

"The alien was apprehended on Street Twenty-Four-Five less than an hour ago. It has not yet been woken up, as scientists want to study it and its interesting mechanical backpack first, so they know what they'll be up against.

"This is quite the discovery - the first proof of extra-terrestrial life beyond the Tikop-Seeltra double planet system! We'll head over to the planet's capital with Reporter San, where politicians are debating how to handle this situation..."

The screen changed again, and Dal turned to face Gaz. "Well, we don't have to look any further - I know exactly where Zim is."

"Is master visiting with the tallest tacos? I loooove tacos!" Gir said, running in circles around Gaz, his leash trailing behind him.

"No Gir, Zim's been captured," Gaz explained to the robot.

"Oh, that's bad," Gir said, and ceased his running. "We have to go rescue him. Right pig?" At this, Gir pulled a toy pig out from behind his back and started to squeeze it with a stupid amused look on his face.

"Great, the malfunctioning SIR thinks we should rescue him. I can't believe I'm agreeing with it, but I can't risk Zim revealing me to the public," Dal said, sighing. She seemed to draw something out of the backpack that disguised her pak, and spoke into it. "Vicky, meet us back at the base. Zim's been captured by the humans, and we need to make a plan to rescue him."

"Alright, master," Vicky's voice was faintly heard coming out of it. "And it turns out Val's Videogames has accidentally put Laser Wars IV on their shelves a day early - should I grab one for you?"

"Laser Wars? YES!" Dal cried happily, pumping the fist that wasn't holding the communication device into the air. "See you at the base."

"'Kay."

* * *

"So what's the plan Tak?" Dib asked.

"I'm not really sure yet, but Zim's being held on Tikop. So we have to get over there before we do anything else," Tak replied. They were walking through Nij's house to the back door, since Tak had opted to take her ship instead of inter-planetary public transport. Following the human and irken were Mimi and Daff, whom Nij had offered as assistance to Tak after she insisted that he not accompany them on the rescue mission.

"Why can't your SIR talk?" Daff asked as the four walked outside to Tak's ship.

"I chose to remove Mimi's voice box when her incessant talking might have jeopardized a mission; I decided not to put it back in afterwards, though I had been planning to."

"Gee, I'd hate it if Nij decided to take out my voice box, I love talking. Did you like talking Mimi? Oh, right, you can't respond," Daff said, looking apologetically at the other SIR, who regarded Daff with a seemingly emotionless stare.

They all got into Tak's ship, and took off for Tikop.

"How are we going to find out where Zim's being held?" Dib asked as they approached the other planet.

"He's being held in the Scipolitan," Daff said from behind them.

"And I suppose you know where that is," Tak said, glancing back at the SIR as they entered Tikop's atmosphere.

"Of course, Nij uploaded me with a map of Tikop a few days before you arrived. I've never been to Tikop before though, have you guys? I'm surprised they're still letting people go between the two planets, what with the war and all. Do you know what started the war? Nij hasn't been able to fig-"

"He's almost as bad as Mimi used to be," Tak muttered under her breath.

"Pardon?" Daff asked.

"Nothing, nothing."

* * *

Finally, chapter eight! Off everyone goes to rescue Zim. Hope the humans don't get him on the dissecting table before they can get to him ;P I also included a possible explanation for Mimi's silence.

Off to do more computer programming, sigh. But I did finish designing a Dib shirt smilie program =P lol. Anyway, 'til next time, Grav out.


End file.
